Driven North | Episode 4: Flirting with Canada - New England Home Shows

Featured Blog, Travel & Leisure

Driven North | Episode 4: Flirting with Canada

Time has stopped having any meaning. 7 days have passed and it seems like both a blink of an eye and more than 7 days can handle. We have successfully transitioned to not knowing what day of the week it is or the date so I am calling that a win. We have learned a lot, seen and done a lot and even slept a lot. This trip has truly been an amazing time in our lives and it has only been two weeks! It is hard to wrap my mind around it. This blog helps us keep track, relive and remember so lets get to it!

A Visit to Northern US States

We left the paradise of Hiawatha State forest in the UP and headed Northwest to the border. We decided to spend a bit more time in the Northern US states since we had loved what we had seen so far and that decision did not disappoint. We decided to spend more time in the UP and head as north as we could so drove up to Houghton MI to stay at another Harvest Host location by the Houghton County Historical Society. Houghton is a great small town in a definitively rustic community on the Keweenaw Peninsula. This quiet location offered the museum at the historical society where we learned the history of the copper mining industry there. We decided to drive as far north on the peninsula as we could and saw some beautiful views of Lake Superior on the way. We got to the end of the road and discovered that we had hit the start of US Route 41 which runs all the way to Miami Florida. Who knew? The other interesting thing we found along the way was a large billboard which showed the highest and last years snowfall. We noticed it because it was so tall – 390.1 inches fell there in 1978! Holy cow! 32.5 feet! Crazy! Last year had an all time low of 14 feet! Talk about a winter wonderland.

Exploring Lake Superior

We decided to stick with Lake Superior and wound our way around the Lake. I have never seen a lake as big as Lake Superior. It looked just like the ocean – I felt at home. Before leaving Michigan we made it a point to stop for Pasties which we had been seeing advertised everywhere. They are these wonderful hand-held meat and potato pies. YUM! Lunch did not disappoint that day. To continue our food trend we HAD to stop for cheese in Wisconsin (can you blame us?) and found
a great little shop called the Benoit Cheese Haus where they definitely knew there cheese and we picked up this incredible 10 year aged cheddar. The kind of cheddar that makes one eye involuntarily close from that awesome sharp flavor. We finally made it into Minnesota and stopped for the night at the Saginaw Union Station where the burgers were great and the staff were super friendly. That is where we got a tip for our next stop. The north shore of Minnesota.

The North Shore and Fall Adventures

That was an excellent tip! We drove up the shore to Silver Bay where we found Gooseberry Falls State Park. We stretched our legs hiking there and the sights were absolutely amazing with views of some waterfalls and a cliff hike with vistas of the lake. I highly recommend. We wound our way to our campground in a cute little town called Littlefork, MN. The campground was very small and while I had some slight misgivings of the vibe of the place we ended up really enjoying the town. It was the first place we hauled out our bikes and got to tool around town. From there we went to Rainy Lake and, I have to say, I thought I may have started to get jaded with lake views but Rainy Lake was a sight to see. We decided to see if we could find a boat rental that day and we did! We found a great little fishing boat at Thunder Bird Lodge. The guy running the marina could not have been more helpful and we even managed to figure out how to get a MN fishing license. We spent a wonderful few hours out on the lake though sadly the fish were not biting. We swam and enjoyed the water and the sunshine. Once again we asked a local where to go next – we were pointed even further north skimming the border of Canada (quite literally) to Lake of the Woods, MN where the border is smack dab in the middle of the lake.

Lake of the Woods

We splurged and got a campground with full hookups for three nights so we could feel a little bit at home. We are staying at the aptly named Lake of the Woods campground in Baudette, MN which we are definitely enjoying. They have a marina that we can walk to and staying in place feels good. We have spent our time here visiting Zipple Bay State park (beware the bugs) and renting a pontoon boat to visit the lake (and most likely veering into Canada now and then) where I caught my first fish! Lake of the Woods is as beautiful as advertised but we are looking to start heading west again. Today is a rainy rest day for napping, laundry and updating you on our adventures.

Next Stop: North Dakota

After a review of the map we have decided to continue our tour of the Northern states and have our next adventures in the great state of North Dakota. Then, I promise, we will go into Canada. A sneak peek of our North Dakota plan…we are headed towards the Theodore Roosevelt National Park which I did not even know existed until today.
Phewph…that was a long one. Logging out to get this posted and eat a dinner of pork ribs on the grill with local corn and homemade coleslaw. Who said traveling meant bad food? See you in ND!